Waller, As The `Last Cowboy,' Riding High In The Saddle

The Author As Cultural Phenomenon

November 12, 1993|By JOCELYN McCLURG; Courant Book Editor

Robert James Waller says he knew the celebrity thing had gotten out of control when Connie Chung deemed him America's newest sex symbol and a photographer asked him to take his shirt off (the former economics professor-turned-mega-best-selling novelist declined).

Other indications that the Robert James Waller thing may be out of control:

Waller does not look like Robert Redford.

There are 4.4 million copies of "The Bridges of Madison County" and 2 million copies of his new novel, "Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend," in print.

"Slow Waltz" is the No. 1 fiction best-seller in the country, and "Bridges" is No. 2.

Waller has recorded an album called "The Ballads of Madison County."

"Doonesbury" has lampooned "Bridges."

Critics and the cultural elite love bashing Waller (Newsweek recently compared his prose with that of a mail-order catalog, and Time called him a "Mushmeister").

Americans seem obsessed with: a.) Who will play Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson in the movie version of "The Bridges of Madison County," and b.) Why Francesca Johnson didn't leave her husband for Robert Kincaid.

In case you've had your head stuck in "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Bridges of Madison County" is last year's little novel about a four-day affair between a middle-age sex symbol/National Geographic photographer (Kincaid) and a married Iowa farm wife (Francesca) that started out with a modest 29,000 copy printing. Its unabashed romanticism and old-fashioned morals have made "Bridges" the "Love Story" of the '90s. And the book has turned Iowan Waller into a superstar who's seen by his adoring fans as a model for the modern man, at once sensitive and macho.

Waller is now on a promotional tour for his second novel, "Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend," another tale of adultery, this time between a

middle-age Midwestern sex symbol (a maverick college professor named Michael Tillman) and the troubled wife of another faculty member (Jellie Braden).

On Wednesday, Waller spoke to nearly 500 fans (most of them women) and signed books at the Sheraton Stamford. The breakfast was sponsored by Just Books in Greenwich, an independent bookstore that was one of the first to recognize the mass appeal of "Bridges."

Waller, who calls himself the "last cowboy" (like his hero Robert Kincaid), says he has discovered that there are millions of men in America just like him -- men who feel alienated and who think there's no contradiction between being a "big, strong male" and "liking poetry."

Sounding like Tim Allen on "Home Improvement," Waller joked good-naturedly about guy things -- how he likes "gear" and suspenders (he wore a suit Wednesday) and cowboy boots and traveling in the back country. "I like to sweat," Waller told the well-heeled downstate crowd. (Waller, who is slightly built and has gray hair that does a distinctive flip on his back collar, looks more like an academic than a cowboy.)

The author also displayed his sensitive side, as he talked fondly about his wife of 32 years (Georgia Ann) and said she's his choice for playing Francesca in the movie version of "Bridges."

And who should play Robert Kincaid? someone asked Waller.

Are there any media in the room? he asked. When a hand shot up, Waller declined to answer. (Could it be ... Robert Waller?)

On this book tour, Waller is, for the most part, refusing to speak to print reporters (he has given interviews to People magazine and USA Today) because he believes he has been unfairly treated.

"I have a policy of not reading anything written about me," Waller says. "I don't care whether reviews are good or bad -- although I prefer good ones -- as long as they're intelligent and I might learn something from them."

Despite his defensiveness, Waller, 54, has a healthy sense of humor, and he doesn't seem to take himself too unbearably seriously. The Stamford breakfast crowd got a veritable feast of tidbits from Waller:

Over six or seven novels, he will "sketch out the plight of the American male as I see it. It's almost a tragedy."

The book he's working on now is about a guy named Texas Jack Carmine and a "quite wonderful woman" who is an exotic dancer.

It's a myth that men don't read his books, which he says have been unfairly characterized as "women's books." "I rebel at that."

He wrote "Bridges" for himself and his friends and never planned to publish it. One of his friends hooked him up with a literary agent.

He's not handling fame and celebrity well at all.

It took him several months of hard work to write "Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend," and he says he and his editor felt pressure to produce a creditable second book. "I think we've done it," he says. ("Bridges," on the other hand, flowed forth in 14 days.)